So after a couple beta weekends thought I would give my impressions of The Secret World. Mostly about what the game is and isn't. First and the most important thing is if you are the kind of gamer who hates listening to story or reading quest text this is not the game for you period. You have to pay attention in this game you have to read and you have to do research and solve riddles or at the very least read guides or you will never understand or even get very far in most of the quests in this game. Second the combat is very deep but at the same very shallow in that there is a lot of synergy and such to figure out but I'm not convinced that it is necessary to figure them out to actually carry out and succeed at combat. Also most of the real combat abilities are locked in the weekend beta or so I'm told so it may just be Kingsmouth that's set up to be fairly easy and you will have to learn it at later points in the game. It is also intended that everybody eventually is capable of unlocking everything if you play long enough. Third this is a Funcom game if you can't deal with a bit of jank now and then give it 6 months to a year before you buy it. As I have some tolerance for jank and I like story and the I like the setting and atmosphere I'm going to pick it up. How long I'll play I don't know but as some people around here have figured out by now most games don't hold my attention for more then a few weeks so that's all I plan on getting out of it.
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/jank And this game is probably not for you as I said this one pretty much forces you to pay attention to dialog and text clues if you want to finish a good percentage of the quests.
I had a very similar beta experience from TSW. I do enjoy the harder quests, interesting real world style environment and story lines. However, I felt like the game play as a whole was rather slow and clunky. I was hoping it would be more streamlined, and when i tried to play any other game it was doubly apparent that this game just plays at a slower pace overall than most others games out. The skills and attribute tree's were an interesting idea, but I felt they too felt a little short. The crafting while fun is somewhat tedious and I ended up just not crafting at all because of it. The progression of area's also was a little long winded. Moving from one quest area to another is possible, but without completing a very large majority of the quests available in an area the next area will be very difficult. Also due to the openness of the world and how the quests work it allows for a lot of quest greifing, not that that makes me want to give up on a game, but it can leave you trying multiple times to complete a quest. Like you said though, there are a ridiculous number of bugs in the game still, and I believe this launch will be as buggy if not more so than the AoC launch was.
I was thinking of playing this, but I figured the safer bet was GW2 so I picked that up instead. You should play that deadend. There is no monthly fee and no quests as they are all open and dynamic. The combat system isn't as good as I much prefer the ability to choose what I want, however, overall I think GW2 will be more polished and better in general. Also, you don't have to worry about people running around with shotguns 1-shotting you.
I did not see alot of bugs playing to be honest but what I did see was this whole "no levels" thing is bull, its just levels built into the skill system. Sure you can have whatever ability you want but the skill levels are what allow you to bring better items to use. Regardless I do like the puzzle and the odd nature of it. I expect I will get some enjoyment out of it as if I cancel my preorder via my creditcard ie chargeback, which I can, it will forever blackball me with funcom. So I dunno, I'll see how it goes.
I have been enjoying it for a very long time. Love the skill tree, love the puzzles of the game. Love the story mode. Love practically everything which is new and fresh about the game.